Someone on the piclist ([What is the PICLIST?]) said that there should
be a PIC FAQ. I said I would maintain one if others contributed questions
(and preferrably the answers, too). This is the result.

As yet there are only a few questions, fewer answers, and no structure,
And a lot of [parts in brackets] that need elaboration.
But everything needs a start.

This text is copyrighted by me.
Unaltered reproduction in any form is allowed, but I prefer
that you don't reproduce it on your website, please use a link instead.
Use it at your own risk; I do not accept responsibility for it.

You can contribute by emailing Q&A's to me.
If you post them on the PICLIST I might pick them up too.

(from http://www.voti.nl/swp)
A long, long time ago (when computer chips died when a cat came near on a dry day)
General Instruments produced a chip called the PIC1650,
described as a Programmable Intelligent Computer.
This chip is the mother of all PIC chips, functionally close to the current 16C54.
It was intended as a peripheral for their CP1600 microprocessor.
Maybe that is why most people think PIC stands for Peripheral Interface Controller.
As far as I know Microchip has never used PIC as an abbreviation, just as PIC.
And recently Microchip has started calling its PICs microcontrollers PICmicro MCU's.
Maybe they heard that PIC sounds like the Dutch word for dick and wanted to spare me
the frowns from Dutch readers.

PIC is also the abbreviation of Peripheral Interrupt Controller - but that's
an entirey different story.

(from http://www.voti.nl/swp)
There is no GCC port for PICs,
and it is not likely that one will ever exist. The assumptions made
by GCC about the target CPU architecture are reasonable for almost all CPU's
that can be found in the world (including AVR, 8051 and 68HC microcontrollers),
but definitely not for PICs.
There is at least one attempt to create a free C compiler for PICs (based on SDCC),
but at this moment (2002) no useable product is available.